I am a PhD candidate in the program in History; Anthropology; and Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as well as a researcher with the MIT Environmental Solution Initiative's program in Mining and the Circular Economy.

I study local experiences of, and debates around, energy transitions. My dissertation tracked emerging conflicts over how and where to build and regulate energy storage projects (green hydrogen, lithium-ion batteries, and concentrated solar power) in Chile and California. I'm interested in how such debates reflect, and shape, people's values and hopes for the future - and how storage projects and regulations might be designed to further the goals of a just energy transition. My research has been published in the journals Social Studies of Science and Wetlands, as well as in the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative white paper series (here and here).

I was a 2022-23 Martin Fellow for Sustainability at MIT's Environmental Solutions Initiative (ESI), a 2022-23 International Dissertation Research Fellow with the Social Science Research Council, a 2021-22 Energy Fellow with the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), and a 2020-21 fellow at MIT's Digital Humanities Lab. I received a B.A. in Geosciences and American Studies from Williams College (summa cum laude) and an M.Phil in Social Anthropology (with Distinction) from the University of Cambridge. I was also a 2018 Fulbright Scholar in Chile, and have worked on various environmental policy projects in the U.S. and Latin America.  

HASTS Profile

cwn [at] mit [dot] edu